"So there should have been another tribes nearby too, we should look for them some other day ok?".
Suichi imagined herself finding some weapons buried and becoming famous with her discoveries, of course her friend Ruby would be her partner.
"And i agree, this should be their resting place" Suichi started wandering around the room, seeking for some kind of artifact. While doing so, she realized that she had never heard about this cave before which was strange since it wasn't that hidden. Someone should have been here before, which also explained why there was no artifacts or relics left.
Suichi's instinct was right, nothing of that was real. But her mind didn't want to accept it, so she just treated those thoughts as unfunded speculations.
"Since we are on a dead end, why don't we rest a moment before we start the return to the campus"

"Deal," Ruby agreed. She seemed to be contemplating something, possible what she had said about other tribes. She nodded her agreement at resting here for a moment just prior to Suichi looking around. She searched around for a little while before each heard a rumble.

The sound was reminescent of a bowling ball streaming towards unexpecting pins as it coursed down it's lane. The earth shock, trembling a bit while there had been the sounds of stone crashing against stone as a few of the stalagtits broke away and fell to the floor.

A few small fissures ripped open as the earth cracked in places. Earthquake!

Another clattering sounded followed by a crash as the passage they had just made their way through collapsed.

"What's that sound?" Suichi said with a trembling voice, as the ground started moving. "Oh no! watch out!", the two girls did a good job dodging the falling stalagtits. A screen of dust raised in the room causing some coughs in the pair. "Ruby are you ok?" Suichi yelled when the ground finnally stopped shaking, "Yes, and you Suichi?" she heard.
"Me too. Ruby we have to get out of here ASAP, another of these may happen again".
The cloud of dust wasn't completly cleared yet, but when Suichi got to the entrance she went pale after seeing it was blocked by some big rocks which seemed very hard to move. Now she really wished to find some sort of weapon in that room it would be their only chance to move the rocks.

The bats screeched and fluttered around in a thick cloud near the ceiling as they had been disturbed. Ruby coughed, moved towards the entrance and noticed that the rocks had collected there.

"Stang!" she exclaimed then slid her pack off her back. A smaller rumble caused the earth to shake, an after shock so close on the heels of the earthquake though there had been little more than a rumble and brief shaking.

Unzipping her pack Ruby rummaged through her pack until she found what she was looking for and pulled out a cell phone as if dangers like this had been foreseen. She frowned though upon flipping it opened. "No signal. Damn!"

She seemed to consider for a moment, glanced at the rocks. "Ok, not to worry. My roomie knows I came out here. In the meantime she might not think of my absence as being unusual for awhile now so we're best in finding a tool of some sort ..."

The fear in Suichi's face disperssed partially when Ruby told her about her roommate, "I'm glad someone else knows we are here", but after saying so Suichi thought: "didn't Ruby tell me that she didn't come alone because no one would know she's here".
Suichi stayed silent while looking for some tool in the dusty floor, but her mind was on another buisness... linking all the loose parts of the adventure. It was indeed quite strange now that she looked back at all the events as a whole, it was like she had been carefully leaded there. But all her suspicions came to nothing since she couldn't figure out the reason of all that.

Aegir deliberately got her thinking, got her doubting. He could sense the uncertainty in her thoughts and had been hoping that she would grow wise to what had been going on and run. Now he may not have had much of a conscience but he came to enjoy Suichi's company. One shouldn't play with one's food he supposed, least one grew attached. But he cut off her escape avenue and besides this research had been of interest to him.

So as Suichi began her search for a tool or weapon of some sort Ruby moved up behind her as indicated by her flashlight beam.

"There, what's that?" Ruby asked as she shone the flashlight towards the right on the wooden haft of something. Of course it had been meant as a distraction for the moment that she looked that way Ruby wrapped her arms about Suichi's in a reverse embrace as she attempted to secure her limbs to the side of her body.

When Suichi felt Ruby's hug, all her doubts were confirmed, and she tried to fight back. She prepared to jump behind with all her strength, in an attemp to make her and Ruby to lose balance, making Ruby to take the hit on the ground.
"So i was right about you!" Suichi said as trying to jump back, but the red haired girl didn't move an inch, she was actually heavier than she appeared. Was that really happening to her or it was just a nightmare, Suichi didn't know what to think.

After the futile try Suichi tried to break free but the grip was quite strong, too strong for a student, but still, the main question hadn't been answered "Why?", Suichi said. "Why are you doing this to me Ruby? i thought we were friends!"

If he had weighed what the average teenage girl weighed he would have been rocked backwards, maybe even falling down. But he weighed more then the typical student. Even with flowing into her mind with a constant stream her action had been impossible to predict, impulsive as there had been no forethought about the matter before she acted.

Though her unbalancing attempt was a failure as was her attempt to brake free from his grasp. The arms around her became slimy mauve appendages, tentacles that embraced her as part of his true self had emerged.

A pity ... friends, no, but I find a certain appeal in you. Unfortunately my desires for the results of this procedure are stronger. Even so I was hoping that you'd elude me. His words streaming directly into her mind rather than being spoken in fact that had been the way he was "speaking" to her all along moving his lips, Ruby's lips, in time with what he said.

His illusion then dropped showing the interior of a sterile white room only furnished by a metallic table with various straps on it. Near it was a little table with a wide variety of implements on it.

The door to the chamber suddenly closed by his telepathic command as he slithered over to the table, his true form now revealed though she had been turned away from him at the moment. Tentacles picked her up seemingly with no effort as he held her down to the table, other tentacles and hands securing straps onto her wrists, ankles, neck and waist.

As Suichi saw the fabric of waht she was sensing as reality rip apart, she felt sick for a moment. Her mind was disoriented as her eyes stared at a new sceneario. Gone were the dusty cave, the stalagmites, the blocked wall, the inscriptions in the walls, and everything else. Now she only saw a white room from a table. While she had been adapting to the new situation, she had been taken to a table and bound to it. It was there when she finnally saw Ruby's true form.

Suichi tried to break free, but the starps on her limbs were too tight. "NOOOOOOOOOO LET ME GOOOOOOO!!!" The poor girl started to scream.

In her panic, she remembered the 'nightmare' she had a few weeks ago, where she was raped by a monster, she always had the feeling it was true, and now she was in another monster-like situation, was that real? was THIS real?. She wanted this to be just a bad dream, everything have been quite strange though, like if her senses had been acting on their own, seeing what they shouldn't have seen, like in a dream.

That reasoning brougth the girl some calm, but she wasn't completly sure yet. Her body was still trembling.

She didn't notice the scientifics looking from behind the window, her gaze was focused on the creature nearby. She felt Ruby's words on her mind, the creature's words, which meant they could communicate. "What do you want with me?" the girl asked, with a still trembling voice.

He allowed her to scream, a mauve hand fingering against her shirt before drawing away to the table. His mouth tendrils quivered as if agitated though he clearly wasn't given how calm he seemed. He did turn his attention from her to focus on what he was doing as he filled a syringe part way with a clear liquid and depressed the trigger to squeeze the air bubble out of it.

Liquid squirted from it's tip while one of his tentacles rubbed against her arm with an alcohol swab in preparation.

Oh, I intend on releasing you when we're through here. But first there's a little something that I need to do first. Something that can be quite benefical to your insignificant species but more importantly myself.

He pricked her arm then as he injected her with something. He could sense her thoughts easily enough and read what was going through her head with no difficulty. He pondered for a moment, then cast his gaze at her. The blank white eyes studied her for a moment and then ....

Then she was in the sea, no sight of land though their was a capsized sail boat 50' from where she was at ...

Suichi's eyes widened as she saw the needle pointing at her arm, when she felt the coolness of the alcohol she took and held her breath for the injection. She was quite brave for vaccines, but this strange liquid was too thick it hurted a lot while it was introduced into her system.

The pain was real.

The bound girl was losing the hope of the nightmare idea, when the scenario suddenly changed. Suichi's mind was shocked again, it took a few seconds for her to adapt to the new enviroment. That was the second time she experimented those radical changes. "Was i teleported? is this another illusion? even though, the creature said that it had the intention to release me after something". Suichi's mind was full of questions and empty of answers.

As her senses finished to adapt to the new scenario she could do nothing but to stare at the vast sea, until her gaze caught the boat, it was too far for her screams to be heard, and given her condition it may be hard for the boat to see her.

Aegir was just getting started with her. This had been another illusion, a manipulation of her mind to put it precisely. But he seemed to pick up her thoughts, her hopes as easily as one tunes in a radio.

Back in the real world he picked up a taser, eyes focused on it as his fingers wound around it as he turned back towards Suichi.

Something pricked her, biting her leg. What was unseen given the waters though with it came an enormous electrical shock that would seize up her muscles for a second as the shock cursed through her entire body. An electric eel? Then came another shock a moment later, then another. There seemed to be a swarm here, the only refuge in sight was the capsized ship but 50' seemed to be a greater distance with these things shocking her.

In the real prongs from the taser bit into her skin while Aegir periodically delievered this shock and that to her.

Suichi didn't have time to yell for the bite in her leg, because of the shocking she recieved right after it. Was it an eel? she had never seen one of those before, she couldn't imagine how a bite from them would be, maybe this was it.
Her arm, where she had been injected, hurted again since the muscle there was weakened by the needle, and now was getting tense for the shock.
The pain in her leg wasn't gone neither, she felt the teeth of the supossed eel still carved in her delicate skin, she wanted to scream but another jolt of electricity coursed her body.

Then, she started feeling more electrical discharges running through, no exact pattern, not the same timing between them, they were completly random making her unable to prepare for the next one. Her muscles tensing and relaxing on each shock made her uneasy.

Her recent experiences were swirling in her mind. Ruby, the cave, the wall drawings, the earthquake, the white room. And now she was being attacked by eels, even though she first felt a little better by being in the water, one of places she liked the most, now she wanted to be on the boat she was still seeing.

"Please help me!" Suichi cried as little tears came out of her eyes, more of impotence than of pain.

Then the shocks ended though the prongs of the taser still had been embedded into tender flesh. He sensed her mind's reaction to things and noted that she had seemed to be experiencing more of a reaction in her arm where he injected her.

He didn't know if the serum would work or not though he took that as a bad sign as his fingers coursed over a cattle prod. His fingers dancing along the shaft of it before taking it up in his grasp.

Meanwhile, someone popped out of the water. Ken, his long blond hair wet from his recent spill in the water. Strong muscles working as he swam towards the capsized ship then pulled himself up onto it. He sank ever so often as muscles failed to work for a moment, a grimace of pain over taking her features.

Ken had been plucked from her memories, someone that shared a class with her in high school, a little older now. Why he was here with her sailing made no sense though she did have a crush upon him from a distance awhile back.

Aegir waited, holding off on using the cattle prod until she was closer to the capsized vessel, mouth tendrils coursing this way and that anxiously as he gazed down at her restrained form.

Suichi felt reliefed as the shocks stopped, her leg still hurted a little, she supossed the eels were gone, maybe it was caused by the salty water on the small wound. The pain in her arm also stopped with the shocks, as she guessed the only remain of the injection was the muscular ache it left. "What was the liquid anyway, she didn't feel anything yet".

When Suichi realized there was a person heading towards the capsized ship her hopes raised. "HEEEY OVER HEEERE!!!" Suichi tried to catch the man's attention; only when she looked more carefully she recognized the man. "What is Ken doing here?" The mere sight of him brought her back 3 years in time, suddenly lots of images came back to her mind. They had been good friends, but Ken's father was on the military and he was assigned to another city, so he had to move with all his family. Suichi never had any news from Ken since then, and now was there in Shokushu, this was a female only institute, was he working here?.

Suichi realized she was lost in thought, she decided to swin towards the capsized boat, it was hard with her hurted muscles, but she mas making a steady advance.